Hollywood Hunter

Remember in one second [End of the God Station] Mobile phone user input address: m.xinwanben.com

The North American videotape of "Lola Run" has been released, and the film's overseas distribution is also continuing.

In order to stimulate video tape sales and overseas market revenue, with the help of Orion and Warner, Simon unexpectedly won the Oscar for Best Editing Award. In the following days, the media heat even surpassed the award-winning "The Last Emperor". ".

Most of the media are inclined to complain about Simon, believing that the conservative and aging Oscars have prevented "Lola Run" from getting the nominations and honors it deserves.

Then, on April 13, the 41st Cannes Film Festival, which will open next month, announced the shortlist, and "Pulp Fiction" successfully became one of the 21 films that entered the main competition unit.

At the press conference of the shortlist of the local film festival in Cannes, a reporter deliberately mentioned the encounter of "Lola Run" at the Oscars, and asked the chairman of the Cannes Film Festival Jury, the famous Italian director Ito Scola will "Pulp Fiction" was discriminated against because of Simon Westeros' age. Although the answer was only an official rhetoric, the news came back to the United States, which once again caused a heated discussion.

"Pulp Fiction" is scheduled for June 3. The news of the Cannes film being shortlisted for the main competition unit came back to China, and Orion Pictures also took advantage of the situation to release its first TV trailer.

Because of Pulp Fiction's seamless plot structure, it's not easy to make a great trailer for the movie.

Several trailers provided by Orion could not satisfy Simon, and he had to do it himself. After careful consideration, the length of the first trailer is 1 minute and 30 seconds. Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Robert Redford and other celebrities have all appeared on the scene. Dialogue, and finally freeze the picture on the box that exudes golden light.

The plot of "Pulp Fiction" is still in a state of secrecy. Therefore, after the announcement of the trailer, the media quickly judged that this is a 'treasure hunt' type movie.

The facts are naturally quite different from the media's judgments, but this is exactly what Simon wants to see. It has always been the easiest and most effective way to market a movie by throwing up a topic and causing media discussion. "When Harry Met Sally" became a hit at the box office The curve has proven this.

In the third week of its large-scale release, "When Harry Met Sally" received another $12.11 million, with a cumulative box office of $49.16 million. The decline for the whole week was finally locked at 21%, and the box office slipped curve relative to other films in the Easter schedule. must be excellent.

Tim Burton's "Beetle Juice" fell nearly 25% in its second week, despite a one-off 50% increase in screenings the following week.

Orion Pictures' "Johnny the Good", which was released at the same time as "When Harry Met Sally", even dropped by 51% at the box office. It grossed just $13.3 million at the box office. After next week, the one-month screening contract with the theaters expires, and the film will basically withdraw from the big screen.

In Simon's view, the failure of "The Good Johnny" heralds Orion Pictures' doomed performance this year.

In the past two years, after producing several block-office hits, the blindly expanding Orion Films’ production and distribution scale this year is completely comparable to that of the Big Seven, even surpassing that of MGM and other major film companies with relatively sluggish performance.

However, aside from Pulp Fiction, Simon hasn't seen a second movie with big hits at all in Orion's long list.

After last year's stock market crash, life in Hollywood as a whole will not be easy in the next few years. The decline of Orion is as inevitable as companies such as Canon, New World, and De Laurentiis Entertainment. Simon can only watch from the sidelines.

At the beginning of the month, it negotiated with Disney and signed the overseas distribution rights contract for "When Harry Met Sally", and Daenerys Pictures received a $30 million sale payment in late April.

Compared with the $15 million production cost of "When Harry Met Sally", the company directly doubled the return. Of course, the proceeds of this film also need to be shared with the British craft film industry that participated in the investment.

According to the original contract, excluding production costs, Daenerys Pictures will receive 60% of the film's net profit. In this way, Daenerys Pictures can get $16.5 million for the sale of $30 million. After the $15 million production cost is offset, Daenerys Pictures will be able to get 60% of all subsequent revenue.

Before the release of "When Harry Met Sally", Daenerys Pictures had been spending money like water, and now it is finally starting to make money, and Amy Pascal's tense mind has been significantly relaxed.

Simon could see that she had been worried that Daenerys Pictures would rise and collapse as quickly as companies such as Canon.

Although Simon has a huge net worth now, if Daenerys Pictures really follows in the footsteps of companies such as Canon, he will definitely not continue to pour money into this company, and Amy is obviously very aware of this.

However, the expansion of Daenerys Pictures seems to be equally blind, but Simon knows how much the company has set up a series of projects to win.

Whether it is the Big Seven or the second-tier film companies like Orion, they usually cast a wide net by investing in a large number of projects in the hope that there will be a few box office hits. As long as this can be achieved, the studio will basically be able to achieve a good profit.

Because of Simon's prophetic advantage, Daenerys Pictures directly raised a few big fish in the fishing net.

April 2

1st.

In the new week, Simon woke up early in the morning to read the news from the Los Angeles Times that the talks between the Producers Union and the Screenwriters Guild of America had broken down again.

Santa Monica.

The headquarters of Daenerys Pictures arrived at the company at eight o'clock. Simon had just finished working hours after watching the samples of "Rain Man" in the past few days. Amy also rushed to the company ahead of time, and when Simon came out of the screening room, she talked about it: "Simon, did you hear the news?"

Because it is Monday, the heads of various departments of Daenerys Films and the heads of a series of projects will hold a weekly meeting.

Simon and Amy came to the conference room together, nodded with several other executives who had already arrived, and said, "Of course, so our reality TV project can enter the substantive production stage."

The producers' union and the screenwriters' union broke down in negotiations. Naturally, it is impossible to restart after restarting. Both parties need to make a difference, and it will be at least next month's thing to get to the negotiating table again.

According to the operation process of the American TV industry, in March and April every year, TV program producers large and small will start to identify projects and produce pilot episodes, and then present to several major TV networks and cable stations in the annual TV program promotion season in May. Make a sale.

Due to the strike of the screenwriters, not to mention the pilot episodes, many filmmakers now do not even have a few scripts in their hands.

Originally, if a settlement could be reached this month and the construction period was urgently rushed, everyone would not delay the promotion season next month. Negotiations broke down again, and this matter was naturally out of the question. Missing this most important time node will affect the TV business of several major TV networks throughout the year.

When Amy heard Simon say this, she nodded, but said, "However, Simon, I heard that wga is trying to reach an agreement with the second- and third-tier production companies recently. What should we do?"

Simon thought about it, and remembered that during the strike in 1988, a large number of second- and third-tier production companies did sign agreements with wga before major studios and TV networks. However, the countermeasures of the Hollywood giants were also very decisive. The four major TV networks directly announced that they would no longer purchase programs from the production companies that signed contracts with WGA in advance. WGA also used an anti-monopoly lawsuit to sue the four major TV networks in court. .

With this information flashing in his mind, Simon shook his head decisively and said, "No matter what others do, we will not participate."

Even if the WGA can win the antitrust lawsuit, it would be easier for the TV network to put on shoes for the second- and third-tier production companies that turned against the water in advance. What's more, falling to wga ahead of time won't bring any benefit to Daenerys Pictures, and Simon doesn't intend to get involved in this muddy water.

Simon and Amy chatted, and the executives of various departments and the heads of related projects arrived one after another, and the meeting started soon.

Rolling out a long list of projects required a lot of manpower, and after months of continuous recruiting and expansion, Daenerys Pictures now has departments in film, television, distribution, personnel, finance, etc., even if not counting temporary hires for individual projects , the company has more than 50 permanent employees.

The two-story office building that was originally leased is now very crowded, and Simon has been looking for new office space for the company recently.

However, this is not an easy task.

If all goes well, Simon plans to upgrade Daenerys Pictures to Daenerys Entertainment next year, and all major departments such as film, television and distribution will be subsidiary, which will definitely bring another large-scale expansion of the company.

Daenerys Pictures had already relocated once, and Simon didn't want to have to do this again in a year or two.

The meeting lasted for more than two hours, and as it approached noon, everyone dispersed.

Overall, all projects under the Daenerys Films umbrella are progressing steadily.

"Instinct" and "Rain Man" have already started filming.

"Scream" will also begin filming in a small northern California town at the end of the month.

The negotiations between the Producers Union and the Screenwriters Guild broke down, and Simon also made up his mind to squeeze "Dead Poets Society" and "Steel Magnolia" into the two popular schedules at the end of the year. Therefore, the preparations for these two projects will also be accelerated. Filming is expected to begin in the next one to two months.

The two low-budget films "Sisters" and "Metropolisians" selected from Sundance, Simon completely let go of the producers below.

As for the "Thunderbolt Blue Angel", Simon just held a kind of mentality of 'men make money and women spend money', and let go more thoroughly. Catherine can do whatever she wants, and if she loses, she will lose, whoever lets it go is her own. What about women.

In the end, in addition to the four reality shows that are still in the pipeline, there is only "Batman" controlled by Simon himself.

After the regular meeting in the morning, in the afternoon, Daenerys Pictures started the first round of casting for the actor of "Batman".

Simon has released the harsh conditions of starring in Bruce Wayne ahead of time.

With five film contracts and a fifteen-year contract period, Daenerys Films fully controls the contract terms for the initiative in remuneration.

Unsurprisingly, just these three terms made all Hollywood first-line stars who tried to get the role of Batman back down, and most second-tier stars also made the same choice.

However, Hollywood's greatest strength is that there is never a shortage of actors.

Even though Daenerys Pictures put forward many other restrictions on the premise of several strict signings, the company still received more than 1,200 resumes before the first round of casting, which is almost a large-scale audition, Simon Naturally there is not enough time to participate in person. The casting work in the afternoon was entirely in the hands of several casting directors.

There will be no interviews in the first round

, just by checking resumes and performance videotapes, most of the people will be brushed off, and only about 200 people will enter the second round in the end.

Simon also knows that such an operation will definitely cause many actors with good qualifications to lose the selection, and even some private goods will be entrained by several casting directors. But this is the world. If the conditions are met and they are eliminated, it can only be said that they are unlucky. If you do not meet the conditions but can enter the second round of auditions through your network, that is also strength.

To be fair, it is enough to think about it when you are dreaming.

Meanwhile, Simon came to Culver City with Amy in the afternoon.

Culver City is located east of Beverly and north of Santa Monica. Compared with cities such as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Burbank, etc., Culver City is not too conspicuous in the Greater Los Angeles urban area. The reason why Simon rushed here is mainly because the former MGM studio was in Culver City. Vermont city center.

MGM's owner, casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian, sold the more than half-century-old MGM studio to a company called lorimar-telepictures in the process of converting MGM into a hotel company. TV program production company.

In previous years, lorimar had also been expanding aggressively, backed by the hot-money capital pouring into the entertainment industry.

With the outbreak of the stock market crash and the current Hollywood strike, compared to New World Entertainment, lorimar, which has a more single business field, is inevitably in trouble. If it weren't for some information from other people in memory, Simon had never even heard of lorimar in his previous life. This company.

Now, lorimar is already seeking to sell assets under his name to avoid bankruptcy.

The MGM studio with a long history is undoubtedly the most valuable property under Lorimar. After spending half a day walking around the 20-hectare MGM studio, Simon and Amy left together. Facing Amy's inquiring eyes, Simon just shook his head regretfully.

Lorimar's asking price for the MGM studio was not that expensive, $100 million.

However, Simon found that most of the studios and buildings on the set were dilapidated, and if Daenerys Pictures bought it, it would cost at least another $100 million to repair it. And, despite its long history, the location of the MGM studios really doesn't satisfy Simon.

The MGM studio is relatively close to Beverly Hills, but it is far away from Malibu, 30 to 40 kilometers away. Simon plans to live in Malibu, and if he buys the MGM studio, he'll just spend at least two or three hours a day on his way to work.

Support (end this site) and share this site with those who need it! Can't find the book, please leave a message!